Psychotically brilliant hillbilly auteur and one-man-band Hasil Adkins left few direct disciples in his wake. With a hybrid of Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues, the late Adkins tended to sing about decapitation, his love for fried chicken, and his own insanity in ways that established him as a genre unto himself. He’s had many notable fans (The Cramps being the most famous), but very few artists have ever really attempted to mimic Adkins’ distinctly loopy sonic thumbprint—it’s just too weird.

Swiss one-man-band Reverend Beat-Man, however, wears The Haze’s influence on his strange little sleeve. In 1996, the good Reverend sent Adkins a fan letter and some records, to which Adkins replied with the utmost grace and warmth. Adkins was known for being friendly, if garrulous, in interviews and here we see that Appalachian friendliness in written form as he encourages a kindred spirit across the globe.
 

 
Below you can hear Hasil Adkin’s classic, “She Said,” (famously covered by The Cramps), and below that, Reverend Beat-Man’s admirably Adkinsesque ode to incest, “I See the Light.”